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War Starts
- senkora 5y ago> When Yemen united its mountainous Islamic tribal north with its mountainous Islamic tribal south, many observers were adamant that the experiment was doomed to fail. The differences between the two sides were too great. Clever.
- yyyk 5y agoFunny, but super-reductive. It's like describing every country fighting in WW2 as a 'Christian urban state' - with the exception of the officially atheist USSR. Obviously the war was between USSR and everyone else. Oh, that's the Red Alert timeline, not the real one.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoWell, except that as the situation developed, it turned into exactly what you describe, a conflict between the USSR and everybody else. That tends to suggest that the analysis has value.
- lazide 5y agoNo love for Japan?
- thaumasiotes 5y agoNo. Why? The cultural analysis would tell you that Japan is the natural enemy of every European country including the USSR. In a conflict between several European countries, what does that suggest? We see them in history attacking every nearby European country (in which category I'm including the US) as well as their actual enemy, China. Where's the surprise?
- lazide 5y agoAnd the Turks! Since the suggestion it was two sided, when really it was more hexagonal.
- zapataband1 5y agoActually it turned into the U.S./established capital powers against any inkling of communism and any poor nation that USSR decided to aid.
- zapataband1 5y agoWhy downvote when you can just google? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_interventions_by_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_interventions_by_the_U... The aftermath of the Second World War resulted in a foreign policy in which the U.S. sought to oppose world communism. The ensuing Cold War resulted in the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter, and Reagan Doctrines, all of which saw the U.S. embrace espionage, regime change, proxy conflicts, and other clandestine activity internationally against the Soviet Union.
- zapataband1 5y agoAnd here's an analysis on soviet foreign aid to third world countries https://www.jstor.org/stable/151493 https://www.jstor.org/stable/151493
- tofof 5y agoExcept Japan, and China, and the USSR, and also Ethiopia and Libya and Algeria and Egypt and India and the Phillipines ......
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoEthiopia and Philippines are very Christian, though maybe not as urban.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- neilv 5y agoThis was very readable.
- reducesuffering 5y agoIf you're further interested in a look inside Yemen, here's a cursory look from a traveler a month ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl8FPYOnJ4M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl8FPYOnJ4M
- pcardoso 5y agoThis channel is amazing, found it the other day and was instantly hooked.
- tpmx 5y agoMeanwhile the russians are actually gearing up to invade Ukraine with force as we speak (write), and the worst deterrent the west seems willing to use is blocking Russia from the SWIFT international banking system, and that's a maybe.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- helge9210 5y agoThis means a possibility for me to die in this war (fighting against Russians). Is this how inevitability of the war was felt in Europe hundred of years ago?
- motohagiography 5y agoStrange to see war starting to surface the mainstream zeigeist, as it's been happening predictably in slow motion as the consequence of obvious incentives for about 18 months, and then it goes up all at once. From everything I can tell from reading about previous ones, war is a kind of triumph of the absurd, where meaning is extinguished and all that is left is the violence until the attrition establishes some coherence again. My bets are Russia re-establishes some of its soviet era borders between the Black and the Baltic seas, including Ukraine, then possibly Latvia or Estonia. Israel is almost out of alternatives on Iran, and China will consolidate Hong Kong and Taiwan in Xi's lifetime. The only thing standing in any of their way is the alliance of Biden, Bojo, Macron, and Trudeau getting enough democratic traction for a draft and total war. So nothing, basically. Anyway, remember to act surprised.
- TheGigaChad 5y agoHow and how much are you betting?
- dang 5y agoPlease don't take HN threads on generic flamewar tangents and especially not nationalistic ones. That's not what this site is for. (Edit: and we've had to ask you about this numerous times in the past. That's not cool.) https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- howmayiannoyyou 5y ago> China is also alleged to have launched a hypersonic glide vehicle from their missile, a technological feat that no other country is close to achieving. In a prior career I watched closely as hundreds of bright, some brilliant, minds opted for careers in fintech, crypto or webtech instead of working for (or continuing to work for) US defense companies both small and large. For some this was a moral decision, but for most it was about money. It's almost as if our democracies don't require defending, at least not by us. Best to hope someone else will do so. After all, those weapons are sometimes misused, the arms industry is also a business, and the amount of efficiency & waste is appalling. And, our democracies are equally flawed, unequal & manipulated by special interests. The democracies run by those we elected, I should add. At least, these are the arguments I've heard stated time and again. For something closer to the ideal I might contribute, some would say. If things were different I could justify the sacrifice. If the US and the West loses its competition with China/Russia - it will be largely because we focused too heavily on our very lementable flaws, and far too little on what the world might look like were our remaining positive qualities overshadowed by the national interests of countries less virtuous.
- wolverine876 5y agoWhy is the parent and thread collapsed?
- _dain_ 5y agoPerhaps it's more attractive to work for a defense company when your country actually knows how to win a war.
- howmayiannoyyou 5y agoThe US knows how to win battles and knows how to win wars. It is willing to go to great lengths and expense for the former, but only the expense part for the latter. Something to do with election cycles, a fickle public & and lousy communications strategies when it comes to expectation setting. So, I sorta agree? None of this has anything to do with why my 22 year old nephew (most recent example) is going to Wall Street instead of DARPA.
- steve76 5y ago[flagged]
- jcun4128 5y ago> no other country is close to achieving Thought US had some form of this tech in the 60s but left it in favor of something else Like Dyna-soar
- lstodd 5y agoLow intensity conflict. It's always like that. Someone shoots at someone somewhere else. It just a background noise. Why bother? You won't hear your bullet. Even if you could, it won't change anything anyway.
- hutzlibu 5y ago"Someone shoots at someone somewhere else. It just a background noise. Why bother? You won't hear your bullet." Sounds dramatic, but I heard that staying away from shootouts, or taking cover when you are too close can somehow magically increase your odds of not getting shot.
- edmcnulty101 5y agoIn a war situation, the way to prevent the enemy from overrunning your position, is to shoot back.
- hutzlibu 5y agoSure, that is one way. But this scenario was about other people fighting themself and how about to not get in the way.
- ourdramadotnet 5y agoNo man is an island?